High efficiency signal field encoding structure

ABSTRACT

This disclosure describes methods, apparatus, and systems related to a high efficiency signal field encoding structure. A device may determine a communications channel having a bandwidth of a frequency band. The device may determine a first group of subchannels of the bandwidth and a second group of subchannels of the bandwidth. The device may determine a high-efficiency signal field to be transmitted on the communications channel to a first device. The device may encode the high-efficiency signal field using the first group of subchannels and the second group of subchannels. The device may cause to send the high-efficiency signal field to the first device.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.14/998,281 filed Dec. 24, 2015 which claims the benefit of U.S.Provisional Application No. 62/189,449 filed Jul. 7, 2015 the disclosureof which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This disclosure generally relates to systems and methods for wirelesscommunications and, more particularly, high efficiency signal fieldencoding structure in wireless communications.

BACKGROUND

Wireless devices are becoming widely prevalent and are increasinglyrequesting access to wireless channels. A next generation WLAN, IEEE802.11ax or High-Efficiency WLAN (HEW), is under development. HEWutilizes Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) inchannel allocation.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 depicts a network diagram illustrating an example networkenvironment of an illustrative high efficiency signal field parallelcoding system, according to one or more example embodiments of thedisclosure.

FIGS. 2A-2B depict illustrative schematic diagrams of a high efficiencysignal field encoding structure, in accordance with one or more exampleembodiments of the present disclosure.

FIGS. 3A-3B depict illustrative schematic diagrams of a high efficiencysignal field encoding structure, in accordance with one or more exampleembodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 4 depicts an illustrative schematic diagram of a high efficiencysignal field encoding structure, in accordance with one or more exampleembodiments of the present disclosure.

FIGS. 5A-5B depict illustrative schematic diagrams of a high efficiencysignal field encoding structure, in accordance with one or more exampleembodiments of the present disclosure.

FIGS. 6A-6D depict illustrative schematic diagrams of load balancing, inaccordance with one or more example embodiments of the presentdisclosure.

FIGS. 7A-7B depict illustrative schematic diagrams of load balancing, inaccordance with one or more example embodiments of the presentdisclosure.

FIGS. 8A-8B depict illustrative schematic diagrams of load balancing byrepetition, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 9A depicts a flow diagram of an illustrative process for anillustrative high efficiency signal field encoding structure, inaccordance with one or more embodiments of the disclosure.

FIG. 9B depicts a flow diagram of an illustrative process for anillustrative high efficiency signal field encoding structure, inaccordance with one or more embodiments of the disclosure.

FIG. 10 illustrates a functional diagram of an example communicationstation that may be suitable for use as a user device, in accordancewith one or more example embodiments of the disclosure.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram of an example machine upon which any of oneor more techniques (e.g., methods) may be performed, in accordance withone or more embodiments of the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Example embodiments described herein provide certain systems, methods,and devices, for providing signaling information to Wi-Fi devices invarious Wi-Fi networks, including, but not limited to, IEEE 802.11ax(referred to as HE or HEW).

The following description and the drawings sufficiently illustratespecific embodiments to enable those skilled in the art to practicethem. Other embodiments may incorporate structural, logical, electrical,process, and other changes. Portions and features of some embodimentsmay be included in, or substituted for, those of other embodiments.Embodiments set forth in the claims encompass all available equivalentsof those claims.

During communication between two devices, one or more frames may be sentand received. These frames may include one or more fields (or symbols)that may be based on an IEEE 802.11 standard. In a high efficiencycommunication (e.g., HEW) these one or more fields may be represented byone or more OFDMA symbols. The one or more fields may include somelegacy signal fields and some high efficiency signal fields. A highefficiency signal field (HE-SIG) may be made up of two high efficiencysignal fields (e.g., HE-SIG-A and HE-SIG-B). HE-SIG-A and/or HE-SIG-Bmay describe attributes of the one or more frames, such as, the channelwidth, modulation and coding, and whether the frame is a single ormulti-user frame. HE-SIG-B may be encoded across an entire bandwidth(e.g., 80 MHz) or may be encoded within each 20 MHz subchannels of, forexample, an 80 MHz bandwidth. In that case, the information in eachsubchannel is independent and separately encoded with each other.Therefore, each subchannel will have a distinct HE-SIG-B encoding.

Example embodiments of the present disclosure relate to systems,methods, and devices for high efficiency signal field encoding structurethat facilitate limiting the number of encoding processes for HE-SIG-Bto two or three processes. Therefore, 20 MHz subchannels may be dividedinto two groups and encoded by two encoding processes. That is, insteadof having each 20 MHz subchannel independently encoded, two 20 MHzsubchannels may form a group of subchannels to be encoded by oneprocess. The signaling codebits from each HE-SIG-B encoding process andthe corresponding data signaled by the encoding process may be sent overthe same subchannel group. The numbers of subchannels in each group maybe the same or different.

In one embodiment, the loads on the two encoding processes are likely tobe different. The loads on the encoding processes may be represented inblocks. These blocks may be codebits that may be representative of auser specific part, a group of user specific parts, content of an OFDMsymbol, or one forward error correction (FEC) codeword. Loads may bebalanced by moving them to other subchannels such that signalingoverhead and padding overhead may be minimized. In the case of HEW, somecodebits from an HE-SIG-B encoding process of a subchannel group may besent by another subchannel group. Namely, the signaling information andthe corresponding data portion may be sent over different subchannelgroups for the offloaded users in order to minimize the paddingnecessary to keep the two subchannels balanced. In another embodiment,repetition of one or more loads may be used to replace padding, whichmay increase decoding reliability at the receiving device.

FIG. 1 is a network diagram illustrating an example network environment,according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure.Wireless network 100 may include one or more devices 120 and one or moreaccess point(s) (AP) 102, which may communicate in accordance with IEEE802.11 communication standards, including IEEE 802.11ax. The device(s)120 may be mobile devices that are non-stationary and do not have fixedlocations.

In some embodiments, the user devices 120 and AP 102 may include one ormore computer systems similar to that of the functional diagram of FIG.10 and/or the example machine/system of FIG. 11.

One or more illustrative user device(s) 120 may be operable by one ormore user(s) 110. The user device(s) 120 (e.g., 124, 126, or 128) mayinclude any suitable processor-driven user device including, but notlimited to, a desktop user device, a laptop user device, a server, arouter, a switch, an access point, a smartphone, a tablet, wearablewireless device (e.g., bracelet, watch, glasses, ring, etc.) and soforth.

Any of the user device(s) 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126, 128), and AP102 may be configured to communicate with each other via one or morecommunications networks 130 and/or 135 wirelessly or wired. Any of thecommunications networks 130 and/or 135 may include, but not limited to,any one of a combination of different types of suitable communicationsnetworks such as, for example, broadcasting networks, cable networks,public networks (e.g., the Internet), private networks, wirelessnetworks, cellular networks, or any other suitable private and/or publicnetworks. Further, any of the communications networks 130 and/or 135 mayhave any suitable communication range associated therewith and mayinclude, for example, global networks (e.g., the Internet), metropolitanarea networks (MANs), wide area networks (WANs), local area networks(LANs), or personal area networks (PANs). In addition, any of thecommunications networks 130 and/or 135 may include any type of mediumover which network traffic may be carried including, but not limited to,coaxial cable, twisted-pair wire, optical fiber, a hybrid fiber coaxial(HFC) medium, microwave terrestrial transceivers, radio frequencycommunication mediums, white space communication mediums, ultra-highfrequency communication mediums, satellite communication mediums, or anycombination thereof.

Any of the user device(s) 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126, 128), and AP102 may include one or more communications antennae. Communicationsantenna may be any suitable type of antenna corresponding to thecommunications protocols used by the user device(s) 120 (e.g., userdevices 124, 124 and 128), and AP 102. Some non-limiting examples ofsuitable communications antennas include Wi-Fi antennas, Institute ofElectrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 family of standardscompatible antennas, directional antennas, non-directional antennas,dipole antennas, folded dipole antennas, patch antennas, multiple-inputmultiple-output (MIMO) antennas, or the like. The communications antennamay be communicatively coupled to a radio component to transmit and/orreceive signals, such as communications signals to and/or from the userdevices 120.

Any of the user devices 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126, 128), and AP102 may include any suitable radio and/or transceiver for transmittingand/or receiving radio frequency (RF) signals in the bandwidth and/orchannels corresponding to the communications protocols utilized by anyof the user device(s) 120 and AP 102 to communicate with each other. Theradio components may include hardware and/or software to modulate and/ordemodulate communications signals according to pre-establishedtransmission protocols. The radio components may further have hardwareand/or software instructions to communicate via one or more Wi-Fi and/orWi-Fi direct protocols, as standardized by the Institute of Electricaland Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standards. In certain exampleembodiments, the radio component, in cooperation with the communicationsantennas, may be configured to communicate via 2.4 GHz channels (e.g.802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n), 5 GHz channels (e.g. 802.11n, 802.11ac), or60 GHZ channels (e.g. 802.11ad). In some embodiments, non-Wi-Fiprotocols may be used for communications between devices, such asBluetooth, dedicated short-range communication (DSRC), Ultra-HighFrequency (UHF) (e.g. IEEE 802.11af, IEEE 802.22), white band frequency(e.g., white spaces), or other packetized radio communications. Theradio component may include any known receiver and baseband suitable forcommunicating via the communications protocols. The radio component mayfurther include a low noise amplifier (LNA), additional signalamplifiers, an analog-to-digital (A/D) converter, one or more buffers,and digital baseband.

Typically, when an AP (e.g., AP 102) establishes communication with oneor more user devices 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126, and/or 128), theAP may communicate in the downlink direction by sending data frames. Thedata frames may be preceded by one or more preambles that may be part ofone or more headers. These preambles may be used to allow the userdevice to detect a new incoming data frame from the AP. A preamble maybe a signal used in network communications to synchronize transmissiontiming between two or more devices (e.g., between the APs and userdevices).

In one embodiment, and with reference to FIG. 1, an HEW preamble (e.g.,preamble 140) may include one or more fields, such as, a high efficiencysignal A (HE-SIG-A) field, a high efficiency signal B (HE-SIG-B) field142, and other fields such as high efficiency short training field(HE-STF), high efficiency long training field (HE-LTF), data field, etc.It is understood that the above acronyms may be different and not to beconstrued as a limitation as other acronyms maybe used for the fieldsincluded in an HEW preamble.

In one embodiment, during a communication between AP 102 and one or moreuser devices 120 data is transmitted and received between these deviceson a transmission channel (e.g., channel 144). For example, when a userdevice 120 transmits a data packet to AP 102, the data may be firstencoded before transmission. The data encoding may occur over thetransmission channel 144 in frequency and/or time domain. Channel 144may be divided into one or more subchannels. Since HEW data packets mayinclude HEW preambles such as preamble 140, the data included in thepreambles also may be encoded. The HE-SIG-B field may be encoded intoone or more codebits or codewords. For example, HE-SIG-B may be encodedinto codewords 146, having codewords 0 through k, where k is an integer,before being transmitted to a receiving device. In the example of FIG.1, HE-SIG-B is shown to be encoded over the entire channel 144.

In one embodiment, instead of independently encoding the data over theentire channel 144 or each subchannel, the data may be encoded over agroup of subchannels. For example, if channel 144 is an 80 MHz frequencychannel, there may be two groups of 20 MHz subchannels, where each groupincludes two 20 MHz subchannels. A first encoding process may encodedata over a first group of subchannels and a second encoding process mayencode data over a second group of subchannels. This way, the codebitsor codewords generated by the first encoding process may be sent overthe first group of subchannels and the codebits or codewords generatedby the second encoding process may be sent over the second group ofsubchannels.

FIGS. 2A-2B depict illustrative schematic diagrams of a high efficiencysignal field (e.g., HE-SIG-B) encoding structure, in accordance with oneor more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

In one embodiment, the number of encoding processes may be limited to apredetermined number. For example, the high efficiency signal fieldparallel coding system may limit the number of encoding/decodingprocesses to two or three processes.

Typically, data is independently encoded using separate encodingprocesses over each channel or subchannel. For example, HE-SIG-B istypically independently encoded for each channel or subchannel. Forexample in an 80 MHz channel, four decoding processes may be needed atthe device that receives that data. Further, for 160 MHz, eightprocesses are needed. This may require increasing the memory size andcontrol logic complexity.

In one embodiment, two processes may be used as an example and theextension to three is straightforward. When channel bonding (e.g.,non-contiguous channel bonding) is applied, different sizes of channele.g. 60 Hz, 100 MHz may be available. The constituent 20 MHz subchannelsmay still be divided into two subchannel groups.

In one embodiment, if the encoding of HE-SIG-A indicates that thecurrent PPDU (a physical layer convergence protocol (PLCP) data unit) istransmitted on two 20 MHz subchannels with a total of 40 MHz, HE-SIG-B,which may consist of HE-SIG-B1 and HE-SIG-B2, may be divided into twoencoding processes, where the first process encodes HE-SIG-B1 and thesecond process encodes HE-SIG-B2, instead of having one process toencode the entire HE-SIG-B over channel 202. Each encoding process mayindependently encode the signaling information for one 20 MHzsubchannel. In this scenario, two parallel encoders and decoders may beneeded at the transmitting and receiving devices.

In the example of FIGS. 2A-2B, channel 202, which is a 40 MHz channel,the codebits of two encoding processes used to encode HE-SIG-B may besent over two 20 MHz subchannels. For example, HE-SIG-B may be sent overchannel 202, which comprises two 20 MHz subchannels. Referring to FIG.2A, HE-SIG-B may comprise HE-SIG-B1 and HE-SIG-B2. It may be possible toencode HE-SIG-B1 over the first 20 MHz subchannel within channel 202using a first encoding process 204 and encode HE-SIG-B2 over the second20 MHz subchannel within channel 202 using a second encoding process206.

In another embodiment, and referring to FIG. 2B, one encoding process208 may be used to encode HE-SIG-B in order to send the codebits overthe whole channel 202. In that case, the codebits of HE-SIG-B may besent over one 20 MHz subchannel and repeated on the other 20 MHzsubchannel. It should be noted that the two 20 MHz subchannels may becontiguous or non-contiguous in frequency.

FIGS. 3A-3B depict illustrative schematic diagrams of a high efficiencysignal field (e.g., HE-SIG-B) encoding structure, in accordance with oneor more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

In one embodiment, if HE-SIG-A indicates that the current PPDU istransmitted over four 20 MHz subchannels with a total of 80 MHz (e.g.,channel 302), HE-SIG-B may be divided into two independent encodingprocesses, each covering a distinct subchannel group with two 20 MHzsubchannels (e.g., Group 1 or Group 2). Group 1 may consist of a firstHE-SIG-B portion (e.g., HE-SIG-B1), and a duplicated HE-SIG-B1 portion.Group 2 may consist of a second HE-SIG-B portion (e.g., HE-SIG-B2), anda duplicated HE-SIG-B2 portion. Group 1 may be encoded using a firstprocess, and Group 2 may be encoded using a second process. The encodingof both processes may generate codebits for each subchannel group. Thesecodebits may represent the encoded HE-SIG-B field. The HE-SIG-B codebitsof each subchannel group (e.g., Group 1 and Group 2) may be sent overthe subchannel group where the signaled data allocations by the codebitsare sent. That is, the codebits of HE-SIG-B1 and the duplicatedHE-SIG-B1 may be sent over Group 1, and the codebits of HE-SIG-B2 andthe duplicate HE-SIG-B2 may be sent over Group 2. However, since thedata is duplicated (e.g., HE-SIG-B1 and duplicated HE-SIG-B1), thecodebits of each subchannel group (e.g., Group 1 and/or Group 2) may besent over one 20 MHz subchannel and then repeated on the othersubchannels of the same group. It is understood that differentduplication schemes corresponding to different groups of subchannels maybe utilized. For example, in FIG. 3A, HE-SIG-B 1 and duplicatedHE-SIG-B1, may utilize subchannel 1 and subchannel 3 respectively,HE-SIG-B2 and duplicated HE-SIG-B2, may utilize subchannel 2 andsubchannel 4 respectively; while in FIG. 3B, Group 2 that includesHE-SIG-B2 and duplicated HE-SIG-B2 may utilize subchannel 1 andsubchannel 2 respectively. It should be appreciated that othercombinations may be possible.

FIG. 4 depicts an illustrative schematic diagram of a high efficiencysignal field (HE-SIG-B) encoding structure, in accordance with one ormore example embodiments of the present disclosure.

In one embodiment, for short-range applications, such as devices withinproximity of each other, the duplication of the high efficiency field(e.g., HE-SIG-B) in FIG. 3 may not be needed. For example, subchannelgroup 1 may include two 20 MHz subchannels, as seen in FIG. 3A or FIG.3B. However, instead of encoding HE-SIG-B 1 over the first 20 MHzsubchannel and repeating in a different 20 MHz subchannel, HE-SIG-B1 maybe encoded over the entire subchannel group 1. The same may be true forHE-SIG-B2, where HE-SIG-B2 maybe encoded over the entire subchannelgroup 2. The encoding may be done using interleaving over all thesubchannels of the subchannel group (e.g., subchannel group 1 and 2).After encoding, the code bits of each subchannel group may be sent usingthe subchannels in the group. It is understood that the above is only anexample of encoding and that other encoding mechanisms may be used inorder to encode the HE-SIG-B over one or more subchannel groups.

FIGS. 5A-5B depict illustrative schematic diagrams of a high efficiencysignal field encoding structure, in accordance with one or more exampleembodiments of the present disclosure.

In one embodiment, if HE-SIG-A indicates that the current PPDU istransmitted on 160 MHz, there may be three options: option 1: a devicemay only operate in one 80 MHz subchannel; option 2: the device maydecode HE-SIG-B on any subchannel; and option 3: the 20 MHz subchannelsmay be divided into two groups.

In option 1, a device that may receive the HE-SIG-B may operate in one80 MHz subchannel. In that case, the device may try to decode theHE-SIG-B in one of the two 80 MHz subchannels. In each 80 MHzsubchannel, HE-SIG-B may be coded using the techniques outlined in the80 MHz encoding as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4. In this case, each subchannelgroup may consist of four contiguous or non-contiguous 20 MHzsubchannels. When the receiving device receives this data, it may decodethe encoded HE-SIG-B based on that option.

In option 2, a receiving device may decode HE-SIG-B on any subchannel ofthe 160 MHz channel. Referring to FIG. 5, there is shown an example onHE-SIG-B encoding across 160 MHz, where two different HE-SIG-B codebitstreams (e.g., HE-SIG-B1 and HE-SIG-B2) are sent independently on two 20MHz subchannels and the rest of the 20 MHz subchannels are duplicationsof the two subchannels. In FIGS. 5A-5B, the first subchannel group mayconsist of subchannels 1, 3, Sand 7 and the second subchannel group mayconsist of subchannels 2, 4, 6 and 8. The codebits of HE-SIG-B1 and theduplicated HE-SIG-B1 may be sent over the first subchannel group, andthe codebits of HE-SIG-B2 and the duplicate HE-SIG-B2 may be sent overthe second subchannel group. However, since the data is duplicated(e.g., HE-SIG-B1 and duplicated HE-SIG-B1, the codebits of eachsubchannel group may be sent over one 20 MHz subchannel and thenrepeated on the other subchannels of the same group. It is understoodthat different duplication schemes corresponding to different groups ofsubchannels may be utilized. For example, in FIG. 5A, HE-SIG-B1 andduplicated HE-SIG-B1, may utilize subchannels 1, 3, 5, and 7, HE-SIG-B2and duplicated HE-SIG-B2, may utilize subchannels 2, 4, 6, and 8, whilein FIG. 5B, HE-SIG-B2 and duplicated HE-SIG-B2 may utilize subchannels2, 4, 6, and 8. It should be appreciated that other combinations may bepossible. When the receiving device receives the encoded HE-SIG-B, thereceiving device may decode the encoded HE-SIG-B based on thecorresponding combination.

In option 3, the 20 MHz subchannels may be divided into two groups of 80MHz channel, where each group consists of four 20 MHz subchannels. Thisoption allows the codebits of the encoded HE-SIG-B to be sent in twogroups of subchannels. In that case, the codebits of HE-SIG-B of eachsubchannel group are interleaved and jointly sent to a receiving deviceby the 20 MHz subchannels of the subchannel group without repetition.The receiving device may decode the encoded HE-SIG-B based on thatoption.

FIGS. 6A-6D depict an illustrative schematic diagrams of load balancing,in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the presentdisclosure.

In one embodiment, since one subchannel group may have more HE-SIG-Bcodebits than the other(s), padding may be needed as shown in FIG. 6A.The reason is that the numbers of scheduled users in differentsubchannel group are usually different and the HE-SIG-B transmissions ofall subchannel groups may be terminated at the same time.

Referring to FIG. 6A, there is shown blocks 602, where subchannel group1 includes blocks 1-7 and subchannel group 2 includes blocks 1-2.However, since the size of the groups is different, padding may beutilized. Therefore, in addition to blocks 1-2, subchannel group 2 mayinclude a number of padding blocks. In the example of FIG. 6A,subchannel group 2 may include five padding blocks. Blocks (alsoreferred to herein as loads) may be codebits that may be representativeof a user specific part, a group of user specific parts, content of anOFDM symbol, or one forward error correction (FEC) codeword.

To avoid padding, some loads may be shifted from one subchannel group tothe other subchannel group. If there are more than two subchannelgroups, an order may be defined for shifting the loads. For example,from subchannel group 1 to 2; from 2 to 3; and from 3 cyclically back to1. Loads may be balanced by moving them to other subchannels such thatsignaling overhead and padding overhead may be minimized. In the case ofHEW, some codebits from an HE-SIG-B encoding process of a subchannelgroup may be sent by another subchannel group. Namely, the signalinginformation and the corresponding data portion may be sent overdifferent subchannel groups for the offloaded users in order to minimizethe padding necessary to keep the two subchannels balanced.

In one embodiment, and referring to FIG. 6B, the length of HE-SIG-Bcontent for each subchannel group may be provided to a receiving device.For example, the length of the HE-SIG-B content may be known to thereceiving device after decoding the common part of each subchannel groupor the entire channel. In addition, the receiving device may know howmany codebits each subchannel group may carry because the number of OFDMsymbols for HE-SIG-B may be signaled in HE-SIG-A. Furthermore, thereceiving device may not be able to decode all subchannel groups.Namely, it may only know the length of HE-SIG-B content of its ownsubchannel group and may not know the length of the other subchannelgroup(s). Therefore, the content shifted to another subchannel group maybe located at the end of the payload of the unfilled subchannel group sothat the receiving device may find the offloaded content without havingto know the HE-SIG-B content length of the unfilled subchannel group. Ifthe HE-SIG-B content of each subchannel group has an order, differentoffloading orders may exist as shown in FIGS. 6B-6D.

Referring to FIG. 6B, blocks 622 represent blocks that are allocated forsubchannel group 1 and subchannel group 2. Continuing with the examplein FIG. 6A, subchannel group 1 had seven blocks and subchannel group 2had two blocks. In order to perform load balancing as in FIG. 6B, thecontent of blocks 6 and 7 may be shifted to the end of subchannel group2 in place of the padding blocks, such that block 6 is at the end ofsubchannel group 2 and block 7 is before block 6. Another possibilitymay be to have block 7, at the end of subchannel group 2 and block 6located before block 7 (shown in FIG. 6C). These formats and location ofblocks may be known and/or communicated to the receiving device in orderfor the receiving device to be able to know the location of blocksbelonging to subchannel group 1. It is understood that the above areonly examples of winding back one or more blocks of a subchannel groupinto another subchannel group and that other configurations may bepossible.

Referring to FIG. 6D, there is shown another example of offloading someblocks from subchannel group 1 to subchannel group 2. In this example,block 5 may replace a padding block located in the same timeslot of ablock from subchannel group 1. For example, the same timeslot as block4, block 5 may replace the padding block in that same timeslot ofsubchannel group 2. Following that, block 6 may be placed in subchannelgroup 1 at the next timeslot and block 7 may be placed in that sametimeslot but in subchannel group 2. It is understood that the above isonly an example of offloading one or more blocks of a subchannel groupwhen overlapping timeslots into another subchannel group, and that otherconfigurations may be possible.

FIGS. 7A-7B depict illustrative schematic diagrams of load balancing, inaccordance with one or more example embodiments of the presentdisclosure.

In one embodiment, for 80 MHz, channel 702 may be divided into twosubchannel groups (groups 704 and 706). The HE-SIG-B may be divided intotwo independent encoding processes and each process covers two 20 MHzsubchannels. Namely, the input of each encoding process may indicate theresource allocation for 40 MHz as shown in FIG. 7A. HE-SIG-B in thefirst 20 MHz subchannel may be used to indicate the resource allocationsfor user devices (e.g., STA 1-7), which may be allocated in the first 40MHz subchannel group 704. HE-SIG-B in the second 20 MHz subchannel, maybe used to indicate the resource allocation for user devices 8-10 (e.g.,STA 8-10), which may be allocated in the second 40 MHz subchannel group706. Repetition or duplication may be applied on the third and fourth 20MHz subchannels.

From FIG. 7A, it may be seen that many padding symbols due to loadimbalance between the two 40 MHz. This may affect the system efficiency.One solution is shown in FIG. 7B. The information of several userdevices (e.g. STA6 and STAT) may be moved from one subchannel to anotherto avoid the padding in HE-SIG-B.

In one embodiment, after decoding the common part of HE-SIG-B, thereceiving device may know how many user devices are scheduled in each 40MHz subchannel (e.g., groups 724 and 726). In addition, the number ofOFDM symbols in HE-SIG-B may be indicated in HE-SIG-A. With these twopieces of information (the number of OFDM symbols of HE-SIG-B and thenumber of scheduled user devices in each 40 MHz subchannel), thereceiving device may derive whether there is offloading from onesubchannel group to another (e.g. HE-SIG-B for STA 6 and? in FIG. 7B)and how many content bits are shifted. In FIG. 7B, when the receivingdevice maps the frequency resource allocation pattern in the common partof HE-SIG-B to each user specific part (e.g., STA 6 in FIG. 7B), thereceiving device may collect the user specific parts at the end of theother subchannel group. Note that this idea may be extended to otherconfiguration such as 80 MHz transmission or 160 MHz transmission. Notethat the lengths of the common parts may be different for differentsubchannel groups. The location of the offloaded content of oneoverloaded subchannel group may be at the end of the unfilled subchannelgroup but the boundaries of the user specific parts between the twosubchannel groups may or may not be aligned at code word or codebitlevel.

FIGS. 8A-8B depict illustrative schematic diagrams of load balancing byrepetition, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of thepresent disclosure.

In one embodiment, since padding does not carry useful information asseen in FIG. 6A, repetition may be used to replace the padding asdepicted in FIGS. 8A-8B. Blocks 802 represent blocks that are allocatedfor subchannel group 1 and subchannel group 2. Continuing with theexample in FIG. 6, subchannel group 1 had seven blocks (e.g., blocks1-7) and subchannel group 2 had two blocks (e.g., blocks 1-2), wherepadding was added to subchannel group 2 after the second block.Repetition of one or more blocks may be utilized to fill and replace thepadding. For example, subchannel group 2 may contain content that is arepetition in the unused bits of HE-SIG-B payload in subchannel group 2.That is, the contents of blocks 1 and 2 of subchannel group 2 may berepeated for the entirety of the padding blocks. This may be seen inFIG. 8A, where repetitions 1-2 and a partial repetition are used. Toreplace the padding. The repetition may not be full. For example, thecommon part may not be repeated but the user specific part is repeated.The receiving device may need to decode the common part before knowingthe presence and structure of the repetition. Therefore, if the commonpart decoding fails, the receiver may not be able to combine therepeated common part and decode again. Once the common part decodingsucceeds, the receiver may know the presence and the structure of therepetition for combining and decoding.

The repetition may be as a whole or piece-by-piece as shown in FIG. 8.For example, all the user specific parts are repeated together as inFIG. 8A. In another example, each user specific part is repeatedindividually as in FIG. 8B. The decoding delay and buffer size aresmaller for FIG. 8B than FIG. 8A.

FIG. 9A illustrates a flow diagram of illustrative process 900 for ahigh efficiency signal field encoding structure, in accordance with oneor more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

At block 902, an access point (AP) or a user device may determine acommunications channel having a bandwidth of a frequency band. Takingthe AP as an example, and during a communications session between one ormore devices, such as an AP and one or more user devices, the AP maysend one or more fields as part of a preamble or data frame. HEWpreambles may contain high-efficiency signal fields used to relayinformation to the one or more user devices, for example, during setupof the communications channel.

At block 904, the AP may determine a first group of subchannels of thebandwidth and a second group of subchannels of the bandwidth. Typically,a frequency band or channel may be assigned to the communicationschannel between the devices. In HEW, the frequency band or channel maycomprise one or more subchannels. The AP may utilize the one or moresubchannels to transmit at least the high efficiency signal fields. Forexample, HE-SIG-B may be encoded over the entire frequency band orchannel and HE-SIG-A may be encoded over one subchannel. Typically, theencoding is performed on a subchannel or channel basis. That is, anencoding process may be employed for a subchannel independently from theother processes E and/or subchannels. In one or more embodiments, the APmay determine one or more subchannels that may form a group ofsubchannels that may be used to encode HE-SIG-B using one process pergroup of subchannels.

At block 906, the AP may determine a high-efficiency signal field to betransmitted on the communications channel to a first device. Forexample, the AP may determine that the HE-SIG-B may be transmitted to auser device (e.g., user devices 120 of FIG. 1).

At block 908, the AP may encode the high-efficiency signal field (e.g.,HE-SIG-B) using the first group of subchannels and the second group ofsubchannels. For example, the AP may determine a first group ofsubchannels and a second group of subchannels that may be used whenencoding the HE-SIG-B field. The HE-SIG-B field may be split into, forexample, to parts HE-SIG-B1 and HE-SIG-B2. The AP may encode HE-SIG-B1using the first group of subchannels and may encode HE-SIG-B2 using thesecond group of subchannels. In essence, two encoding processes may beused to encode the HE-SIG-B field. One process for encoding HE-SIG-B1over the first group of subchannels and another process for encodingHE-SIG-B2 over the second group of subchannels. The AP may generatecodebits and/or codewords that may represent the encoding HE-SIG-Bfield. For example, the AP may generate a first group of codebits and/orcodewords to represent the encoded HE-SIG-B 1 and may generate a secondgroup of codebits and/or codewords to represent the encoded HE-SIG-B2.In some scenarios, HE-SIG-B1 may be duplicated. In that case, thecodebits HE-SIG-B1 and the duplicated HE-SIG-B1 may be sent over thefirst group of subchannels or the second group of subchannels. However,since the data is duplicated, the codebits of each subchannel group maybe sent over one subchannel and then repeated on the other subchannelsof the same group.

The two encoding processes are likely to be different and may containdifferent number of codebits. The codebits may be arranged in one ormore blocks. These blocks may be codebits that may be representative ofthe user specific part, a group of user specific parts, content of anOFDMA symbol, or one forward error correction codeword. Consequently,the first encoding process may have a first number of blocks and thesecond encoding process may have a second number of blocks. The numberof blocks may be different between the first and the second process. Incase the first number of blocks is greater than the second number ofblocks, padding may be used to make the first and second subchannelgroups have the same number of blocks. In one embodiment, instead ofusing padding, the one or more blocks may be spread between the twoprocesses such that load balancing is achieved. For example, if thefirst subchannel group contains seven blocks and the second subchannelgroup contains two blocks, and five padding blocks, the AP may performload balancing by shifting two of the blocks at the end of the firstsubchannel group to the end of the second subchannel. Consequently,first subchannel group may contain blocks 1-5, but blocks 6 and 7 areoffloaded to the second subchannel group. Therefore, the secondsubchannel group may contain less padding blocks. It is understood thatthe above are only examples, and that the other load balancingtechniques may be employed. In some of the scenarios, the AP maygenerate one or more duplicate blocks of the first subchannel group anduse those to replace the padding blocks. Continuing the example above,since the second subchannel group contains only two blocks and fivepadding blocks, the AP may replace the five padding blocks withrepetitions of the first two blocks.

At block 910, the AP may cause to send the high-efficiency signal fieldto the first device. In that case, the AP will send HE-SIG-B to one ormore user devices using the encoding mechanism described above. The oneor more user devices that receive the encoded HE-SIG-B may performdecoding of that to be using equivalent processes to the encodingprocesses. That is, the one or more user devices may employ the samenumber of decoding processes as was done during the encoding stage atthe AP.

FIG. 9B illustrates a flow diagram of illustrative process 950 for ahigh efficiency signal field encoding structure system in accordancewith one or more embodiments of the disclosure.

At block 952, a user device or an AP may determine a communicationschannel having a bandwidth of a frequency band. Taking the user deviceas an example, the user device may communicate with another device(e.g., user devices 120 and/or AP 102 of FIG. 1). The user device maysend and receive data frames in accordance with various wirelesscommunication standards such as IEEE 802.11 family. In accordance withHEW, the received preambles may contain high-efficiency signal fields,which may be used, to communicate, at least in part signalinginformation between the devices.

At block 954, the user device may identify a first group of subchannelsof the bandwidth and a second group of subchannels of the bandwidth.When the user device receives an HEW preamble, it may receive it on afrequency band or channel that may be assigned the communicationschannel between the user device and the other devices. Since the HEWfrequency band or channel may comprise one or more subchannels, the userdevice may receive data on one or more subchannels. The user device mayreceive data that may be encoded on a first group of subchannels and asecond group of subchannels.

At block 956, the user device may identify a high-efficiency signalfield received on the communications. For example, the user device mayreceive an encoded HE-SIG-B field, which may be encoded by thetransmitting device using one or more encoding processes. In order forthe user device to decode this field, the user device may employ one ormore decoding processes. In one embodiment, the user device maydetermine that a portion of the HE-SIG-B field is decoded on a firstgroup of subchannels and another portion on a second group ofsubchannels. In order for the user device to properly decode the encodedHE-SIG-B, it may decode both portions of the HE-SIG-B, even thoughportions were received on different subchannels.

At block 958, the user device may decode the high-efficiency signalfield based at least in part on the first group of subchannels and thesecond group of subchannels. For example, the user device may identifythe first HE-SIG-B portion (e.g., HE-SIG-B1) and the user device mayidentify the second HE-SIG-B portion (e.g., HE-SIG-B2). It should beunderstood that the second HE-SIG-B portion may be a duplicate of theHE-SIG-B1. The user device may decode HE-SIG-B1 based at least in parton the first group of subchannels. In addition, the user device maydecode HE-SIG-B2 based at least in part on the second group ofsubchannels. The decoding process of the user device may identify firstcodebits that are associated with the encoded HE-SIG-B1 and may identifysecond codebits that are associated with the encoded HE-SIG-B2. Thefirst codebits may be identified in the form of first blocks and thesecond codebits may be identified in the form of second blocks that maybe received on the group subchannels. If the transmitting device hadperformed load balancing in order to minimize the differences betweenthe number of blocks in the first subchannel group and the secondsubchannel group, the user device may determine that some of the blocksbelonging to the first subchannel group may be located in blocks of thesecond subchannel group. The user device may identify such blocks byvarious means that may include at least block ID numbers, predeterminedblock information, etc.

FIG. 10 shows a functional diagram of an exemplary communication station1000 in accordance with some embodiments. In one embodiment, FIG. 10illustrates a functional block diagram of a communication station thatmay be suitable for use as an AP 102 (FIG. 1) or a user device 120(FIG. 1) in accordance with some embodiments. The communication station1000 may also be suitable for use as a handheld device, mobile device,cellular telephone, smartphone, tablet, netbook, wireless terminal,laptop computer, wearable computer device, femtocell, High Data Rate(HDR) subscriber station, access point, access terminal, or otherpersonal communication system (PCS) device.

The communication station 1000 may include communications circuitry 1002and a transceiver 1010 for transmitting and receiving signals to andfrom other communication stations using one or more antennas 1001. Thecommunications circuitry 1002 may include circuitry that can operate thephysical layer communications and/or medium access control (MAC)communications for controlling access to the wireless medium, and/or anyother communications layers for transmitting and receiving signals. Thecommunication station 1000 may also include processing circuitry 1006and memory 1008 arranged to perform the operations described herein. Insome embodiments, the communications circuitry 1002 and the processingcircuitry 1006 may be configured to perform operations detailed in FIGS.2-9.

In accordance with some embodiments, the communications circuitry 1002may be arranged to contend for a wireless medium and configure frames orpackets for communicating over the wireless medium. The communicationscircuitry 1002 may be arranged to transmit and receive signals. Thecommunications circuitry 1002 may also include circuitry formodulation/demodulation, upconversion/downconversion, filtering,amplification, etc. In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 1006of the communication station 1000 may include one or more processors. Inother embodiments, two or more antennas 1001 may be coupled to thecommunications circuitry 1002 arranged for sending and receivingsignals. The memory 1008 may store information for configuring theprocessing circuitry 1006 to perform operations for configuring andtransmitting message frames and performing the various operationsdescribed herein. The memory 1008 may include any type of memory,including non-transitory memory, for storing information in a formreadable by a machine (e.g., a computer). For example, the memory 1008may include a computer-readable storage device may, read-only memory(ROM), random-access memory (RAM), magnetic disk storage media, opticalstorage media, flash-memory devices and other storage devices and media.

In some embodiments, the communication station 1000 may be part of aportable wireless communication device, such as a personal digitalassistant (PDA), a laptop or portable computer with wirelesscommunication capability, a web tablet, a wireless telephone, asmartphone, a wireless headset, a pager, an instant messaging device, adigital camera, an access point, a television, a medical device (e.g., aheart rate monitor, a blood pressure monitor, etc.), a wearable computerdevice, or another device that may receive and/or transmit informationwirelessly.

In some embodiments, the communication station 1000 may include one ormore antennas 1001. The antennas 1001 may include one or moredirectional or omnidirectional antennas, including, for example, dipoleantennas, monopole antennas, patch antennas, loop antennas, microstripantennas, or other types of antennas suitable for transmission of RFsignals. In some embodiments, instead of two or more antennas, a singleantenna with multiple apertures may be used. In these embodiments, eachaperture may be considered a separate antenna. In some multiple-inputmultiple-output (MIMO) embodiments, the antennas may be effectivelyseparated for spatial diversity and the different channelcharacteristics that may result between each of the antennas and theantennas of a transmitting station.

In some embodiments, the communication station 1000 may include one ormore of a keyboard, a display, a non-volatile memory port, multipleantennas, a graphics processor, an application processor, speakers, andother mobile device elements. The display may be an LCD screen includinga touch screen.

Although the communication station 1000 is illustrated as having severalseparate functional elements, two or more of the functional elements maybe combined and may be implemented by combinations ofsoftware-configured elements, such as processing elements includingdigital signal processors (DSPs), and/or other hardware elements. Forexample, some elements may include one or more microprocessors, DSPs,field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application specific integratedcircuits (ASICs), radio-frequency integrated circuits (RFICs) andcombinations of various hardware and logic circuitry for performing atleast the functions described herein. In some embodiments, thefunctional elements of the communication station 1000 may refer to oneor more processes operating on one or more processing elements.

Certain embodiments may be implemented in one or a combination ofhardware, firmware, and software. Other embodiments may also beimplemented as instructions stored on a computer-readable storagedevice, which may be read and executed by at least one processor toperform the operations described herein. A computer-readable storagedevice may include any non-transitory memory mechanism for storinginformation in a form readable by a machine (e.g., a computer). Forexample, a computer-readable storage device may include read-only memory(ROM), random-access memory (RAM), magnetic disk storage media, opticalstorage media, flash-memory devices, and other storage devices andmedia. In some embodiments, the communication station 1000 may includeone or more processors and may be configured with instructions stored ona computer-readable storage device memory.

FIG. 11 illustrates a block diagram of an example of a machine 1100 orsystem upon which any one or more of the techniques (e.g.,methodologies) discussed herein may be performed. In other embodiments,the machine 1100 may operate as a standalone device or may be connected(e.g., networked) to other machines. In a networked deployment, themachine 1100 may operate in the capacity of a server machine, a clientmachine, or both in server-client network environments. In an example,the machine 1100 may act as a peer machine in peer-to-peer (P2P) (orother distributed) network environments. The machine 1100 may be apersonal computer (PC), a tablet PC, a set-top box (STB), a personaldigital assistant (PDA), a mobile telephone, wearable computer device, aweb appliance, a network router, switch or bridge, or any machinecapable of executing instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specifyactions to be taken by that machine, such as a base station. Further,while only a single machine is illustrated, the term “machine” shallalso be taken to include any collection of machines that individually orjointly execute a set (or multiple sets) of instructions to perform anyone or more of the methodologies discussed herein, such as cloudcomputing, software as a service (SaaS), or other computer clusterconfigurations.

Examples, as described herein, may include or may operate on logic or anumber of components, modules, or mechanisms. Modules are tangibleentities (e.g., hardware) capable of performing specified operationswhen operating. A module includes hardware. In an example, the hardwaremay be specifically configured to carry out a specific operation (e.g.,hardwired). In another example, the hardware may include configurableexecution units (e.g., transistors, circuits, etc.) and a computerreadable medium containing instructions where the instructions configurethe execution units to carry out a specific operation when in operation.The configuring may occur under the direction of the executions units ora loading mechanism. Accordingly, the execution units arecommunicatively coupled to the computer-readable medium when the deviceis operating. In this example, the execution units may be a member ofmore than one module. For example, under operation, the execution unitsmay be configured by a first set of instructions to implement a firstmodule at one point in time and reconfigured by a second set ofinstructions to implement a second module at a second point in time.

The machine (e.g., computer system) 1100 may include a hardwareprocessor 1102 (e.g., a central processing unit (CPU), a graphicsprocessing unit (GPU), a hardware processor core, or any combinationthereof), a main memory 1104 and a static memory 1106, some or all ofwhich may communicate with each other via an interlink (e.g., bus) 1108.The machine 1100 may further include a power management device 1132, agraphics display device 1110, an alphanumeric input device 1112 (e.g., akeyboard), and a user interface (UI) navigation device 1114 (e.g., amouse). In an example, the graphics display device 1110, alphanumericinput device 1112, and UI navigation device 1114 may be a touch screendisplay. The machine 1100 may additionally include a storage device(i.e., drive unit) 1116, a signal generation device 1118 (e.g., aspeaker), a high efficiency signal field encoding device 1119, a networkinterface device/transceiver 1120 coupled to antenna(s) 1130, and one ormore sensors 1128, such as a global positioning system (GPS) sensor,compass, accelerometer, or other sensor. The machine 1100 may include anoutput controller 1134, such as a serial (e.g., universal serial bus(USB), parallel, or other wired or wireless (e.g., infrared (IR), nearfield communication (NFC), etc.) connection to communicate with orcontrol one or more peripheral devices (e.g., a printer, card reader,etc.)).

The storage device 1116 may include a machine readable medium 1122 onwhich is stored one or more sets of data structures or instructions 1124(e.g., software) embodying or utilized by any one or more of thetechniques or functions described herein. The instructions 1124 may alsoreside, completely or at least partially, within the main memory 1104,within the static memory 1106, or within the hardware processor 1102during execution thereof by the machine 1100. In an example, one or anycombination of the hardware processor 1102, the main memory 1104, thestatic memory 1106, or the storage device 1116 may constitutemachine-readable media.

The high efficiency signal field encoding device 1119 may be carry outor perform any of the operations and processes (e.g., processes 900 and950) described and shown above. For example, the high efficiency signalfield encoding device 1119 may be configured to determine acommunication channel between the device and a first device. The highefficiency signal field encoding device 1119 may be configured todetermine one or more subchannels of the communication channel. The highefficiency signal field encoding device 1119 may be configured todetermine a first high efficiency signal field and a second highefficiency signal field included in a high efficiency frame to be senton the communication channel. The high efficiency signal field encodingdevice 1119 may be configured to encode the second high efficiencysignal field into one or more groups based at least in part on the oneor more subchannels. It is understood that the above are only a subsetof what the high efficiency signal field encoding device 1119 may beconfigured to perform and that other functions included throughout thisdisclosure may also be performed by the high efficiency signal fieldencoding device 1119.

While the machine-readable medium 1122 is illustrated as a singlemedium, the term “machine-readable medium” may include a single mediumor multiple media (e.g., a centralized or distributed database, and/orassociated caches and servers) configured to store the one or moreinstructions 1124.

Various embodiments may be implemented fully or partially in softwareand/or firmware. This software and/or firmware may take the form ofinstructions contained in or on a non-transitory computer-readablestorage medium. Those instructions may then be read and executed by oneor more processors to enable performance of the operations describedherein. The instructions may be in any suitable form, such as but notlimited to source code, compiled code, interpreted code, executablecode, static code, dynamic code, and the like. Such a computer-readablemedium may include any tangible non-transitory medium for storinginformation in a form readable by one or more computers, such as but notlimited to read only memory (ROM); random access memory (RAM); magneticdisk storage media; optical storage media; a flash memory, etc.

The term “machine-readable medium” may include any medium that iscapable of storing, encoding, or carrying instructions for execution bythe machine 1100 and that cause the machine 1100 to perform any one ormore of the techniques of the present disclosure, or that is capable ofstoring, encoding, or carrying data structures used by or associatedwith such instructions. Non-limiting machine-readable medium examplesmay include solid-state memories and optical and magnetic media. In anexample, a massed machine-readable medium includes a machine-readablemedium with a plurality of particles having resting mass. Specificexamples of massed machine-readable media may include non-volatilememory, such as semiconductor memory devices (e.g., ElectricallyProgrammable Read-Only Memory (EPROM), or Electrically ErasableProgrammable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM)) and flash memory devices;magnetic disks, such as internal hard disks and removable disks;magneto-optical disks; and CD-ROM and DVD-ROM disks.

The instructions 1124 may further be transmitted or received over acommunications network 1126 using a transmission medium via the networkinterface device/transceiver 1120 utilizing any one of a number oftransfer protocols (e.g., frame relay, internet protocol (IP),transmission control protocol (TCP), user datagram protocol (UDP),hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), etc.). Example communicationsnetworks may include a local area network (LAN), a wide area network(WAN), a packet data network (e.g., the Internet), mobile telephonenetworks (e.g., cellular networks), Plain Old Telephone (POTS) networks,wireless data networks (e.g., Institute of Electrical and ElectronicsEngineers (IEEE) 802.11 family of standards known as Wi-Fi®, IEEE 802.16family of standards known as WiMax®), IEEE 802.15.4 family of standards,and peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, among others. In an example, thenetwork interface device/transceiver 1120 may include one or morephysical jacks (e.g., Ethernet, coaxial, or phone jacks) or one or moreantennas to connect to the communications network 1126. In an example,the network interface device/transceiver 1120 may include a plurality ofantennas to wirelessly communicate using at least one of single-inputmultiple-output (SIMO), multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), ormultiple-input single-output (MISO) techniques. The term “transmissionmedium” shall be taken to include any intangible medium that is capableof storing, encoding, or carrying instructions for execution by themachine 1100 and includes digital or analog communications signals orother intangible media to facilitate communication of such software. Theoperations and processes (e.g., processes 900 and 950) described andshown above may be carried out or performed in any suitable order asdesired in various implementations. Additionally, in certainimplementations, at least a portion of the operations may be carried outin parallel. Furthermore, in certain implementations, less than or morethan the operations described may be performed.

The word “exemplary” is used herein to mean “serving as an example,instance, or illustration.” Any embodiment described herein as“exemplary” is not necessarily to be construed as preferred oradvantageous over other embodiments. The terms “computing device”, “userdevice”, “communication station”, “station”, “handheld device”, “mobiledevice”, “wireless device” and “user equipment” (UE) as used hereinrefers to a wireless communication device such as a cellular telephone,smartphone, tablet, netbook, wireless terminal, laptop computer, afemtocell, High Data Rate (HDR) subscriber station, access point,printer, point of sale device, access terminal, or other personalcommunication system (PCS) device. The device may be either mobile orstationary.

As used within this document, the term “communicate” is intended toinclude transmitting, or receiving, or both transmitting and receiving.This may be particularly useful in claims when describing theorganization of data that is being transmitted by one device andreceived by another, but only the functionality of one of those devicesis required to infringe the claim. Similarly, the bidirectional exchangeof data between two devices (both devices transmit and receive duringthe exchange) may be described as ‘communicating’, when only thefunctionality of one of those devices is being claimed. The term“communicating” as used herein with respect to a wireless communicationsignal includes transmitting the wireless communication signal and/orreceiving the wireless communication signal. For example, a wirelesscommunication unit, which is capable of communicating a wirelesscommunication signal, may include a wireless transmitter to transmit thewireless communication signal to at least one other wirelesscommunication unit, and/or a wireless communication receiver to receivethe wireless communication signal from at least one other wirelesscommunication unit.

The term “access point” (AP) as used herein may be a fixed station. Anaccess point may also be referred to as an access node, a base station,or some other similar terminology known in the art. An access terminalmay also be called a mobile station, user equipment (UE), a wirelesscommunication device, or some other similar terminology known in theart. Embodiments disclosed herein generally pertain to wirelessnetworks. Some embodiments may relate to wireless networks that operatein accordance with one of the IEEE 802.11 standards.

Some embodiments may be used in conjunction with various devices andsystems, for example, a Personal Computer (PC), a desktop computer, amobile computer, a laptop computer, a notebook computer, a tabletcomputer, a server computer, a handheld computer, a handheld device, aPersonal Digital Assistant (PDA) device, a handheld PDA device, anon-board device, an off-board device, a hybrid device, a vehiculardevice, a non-vehicular device, a mobile or portable device, a consumerdevice, a non-mobile or non-portable device, a wireless communicationstation, a wireless communication device, a wireless Access Point (AP),a wired or wireless router, a wired or wireless modem, a video device,an audio device, an audio-video (A/V) device, a wired or wirelessnetwork, a wireless area network, a Wireless Video Area Network (WVAN),a Local Area Network (LAN), a Wireless LAN (WLAN), a Personal AreaNetwork (PAN), a Wireless PAN (WPAN), and the like.

Some embodiments may be used in conjunction with one way and/or two-wayradio communication systems, cellular radio-telephone communicationsystems, a mobile phone, a cellular telephone, a wireless telephone, aPersonal Communication Systems (PCS) device, a PDA device whichincorporates a wireless communication device, a mobile or portableGlobal Positioning System (GPS) device, a device which incorporates aGPS receiver or transceiver or chip, a device which incorporates an RFIDelement or chip, a Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) transceiver ordevice, a Single Input Multiple Output (SIMO) transceiver or device, aMultiple Input Single Output (MISO) transceiver or device, a devicehaving one or more internal antennas and/or external antennas, DigitalVideo Broadcast (DVB) devices or systems, multi-standard radio devicesor systems, a wired or wireless handheld device, e.g., a Smartphone, aWireless Application Protocol (WAP) device, or the like.

Some embodiments may be used in conjunction with one or more types ofwireless communication signals and/or systems following one or morewireless communication protocols, for example, Radio Frequency (RF),Infra Red (IR), Frequency-Division Multiplexing (FDM), Orthogonal FDM(OFDM), Time-Division Multiplexing (TDM), Time-Division Multiple Access(TDMA), Extended TDMA (E-TDMA), General Packet Radio Service (GPRS),extended GPRS, Code-Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Wideband CDMA(WCDMA), CDMA 2000, single-carrier CDMA, multi-carrier CDMA,Multi-Carrier Modulation (MDM), Discrete Multi-Tone (DMT), Bluetooth®,Global Positioning System (GPS), Wi-Fi, Wi-Max, ZigBee™, Ultra-Wideband(UWB), Global System for Mobile communication (GSM), 2G, 2.5G, 3G, 3.5G,4G, Fifth Generation (5G) mobile networks, 3GPP, Long Term Evolution(LTE), LTE advanced, Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE), orthe like. Other embodiments may be used in various other devices,systems, and/or networks.

According to example embodiments of the disclosure, there may be adevice. The device may include at least one memory that storescomputer-executable instructions, and at least one processor of the oneor more processors configured to access the at least one memory, whereinthe at least one processor of the one or more processors is configuredto execute the computer-executable instructions to determine a firstgroup of subchannels of the bandwidth and a second group of subchannelsof the bandwidth. The at least one processor of the one or moreprocessors may be configured to execute the computer-executableinstructions to determine a high-efficiency signal field to betransmitted on the communications channel to a first device. The atleast one processor of the one or more processors may be configured toexecute the computer-executable instructions to encode thehigh-efficiency signal field using the first group of subchannels andthe second group of subchannels. The at least one processor of the oneor more processors may be configured to execute the computer-executableinstructions to cause to send the high-efficiency signal field to thefirst device.

The implementations may include one or more of the following features.The instructions to encode the high-efficiency signal field further mayinclude instructions to split the high-efficiency signal field into afirst high-efficiency signal part and a second high-efficiency signalpart. The at least one processor of the one or more processors may beconfigured to execute the computer-executable instructions to encode thefirst high-efficiency signal part using the first group of subchannels.The at least one processor of the one or more processors may beconfigured to execute the computer-executable instructions to encode thesecond high-efficiency signal part using the second group ofsubchannels. The at least one processor is further configured to executethe computer-executable instructions to send a duplicate of the firsthigh-efficiency signal part is sent on one subchannel of the first groupof subchannels, and a duplicate of the second high-efficiency signalpart is sent on one subchannel of the second group of subchannels. Theat least one processor is further configured to execute thecomputer-executable instructions to generate one or more first codebitsbased at least in part on the encoded first high-efficiency signal part.The at least one processor of the one or more processors may beconfigured to execute the computer-executable instructions to generateone or more second codebits based at least in part on the encoded secondhigh-efficiency signal part. The at least one processor is furtherconfigured to execute the computer-executable instructions to arrangethe one or more first codebits into one or more first blocks. The atleast one processor of the one or more processors may be configured toexecute the computer-executable instructions to arrange the one or moresecond codebits into one or more second blocks. A number of the one ormore first blocks have more codebits than a number of the one or moresecond blocks. The at least one processor is further configured toexecute the computer-executable instructions to determine that a numberof the one or more second blocks have less codebits than the number ofthe one or more first blocks. The at least one processor of the one ormore processors may be configured to execute the computer-executableinstructions to generate one or more duplicate blocks of at least one ofthe one or more second blocks. The at least one processor of the one ormore processors may be configured to execute the computer-executableinstructions to cause to send the one or more duplicate blocks using thesecond group of subchannels. The at least one processor is furtherconfigured to execute the computer-executable instructions to cause tosend one of the one or more first blocks using the second group ofsubchannels. The at least one processor of the one or more processorsmay be configured to execute the computer-executable instructions tocause to send one of the one or more second blocks using the first groupof subchannels. The device may further include a transceiver configuredto transmit and receive wireless signals. The device may further includean antenna coupled to the transceiver.

According to example embodiments of the disclosure, there may be anon-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executableinstructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor toperform operations. The operations may include determining acommunications channel having a bandwidth of a frequency band. Theoperations may include identifying a first group of subchannels of thebandwidth and a second group of subchannels of the bandwidth. Theoperations may include identifying a high-efficiency signal fieldreceived on the communications channel. The operations may includedecoding the high-efficiency signal field based at least in part on thefirst group of subchannels and the second group of subchannels.

The implementations may include one or more of the following features.The operations may include the operations to decode the high-efficiencysignal field further include operations comprising identifying a firsthigh-efficiency signal part of the high-efficiency signal field and asecond high-efficiency signal part of the high-efficiency signal field.The operations may include decoding the first high-efficiency signalpart based at least in part on the first group of subchannels. Theoperations may include decoding the second high-efficiency signal partbased at least in part on the second group of subchannels. A duplicateof the first high-efficiency signal part is received on one subchannelof the first group of subchannels, and a duplicate of the secondhigh-efficiency signal part is received on one subchannel of the secondgroup of subchannels. The computer-executable instructions cause theprocessor to further perform operations comprising identifying one ormore first codebits based at least in part on the decoded firsthigh-efficiency signal part. The operations may include identifying oneor more second codebits based at least in part on the decoded secondhigh-efficiency signal part. The computer-executable instructions causethe processor to further perform operations comprising identifying oneor more first blocks of the one or more first codebits into. Theoperations may include identifying one or more second blocks of the oneor more second codebits. A number of the one or more first blocks aregreater than a number of the one or more second blocks. Thecomputer-executable instructions cause the processor to further performoperations comprising identifying one of the one or more first blocksbased at least in part on the second group of subchannels. Theoperations may include identifying one of the one or more second blocksbased at least in part on the first group of subchannels.

In example embodiments of the disclosure, there may be a method. Themethod may include determining a communications channel having abandwidth of a frequency band, determining a first group of subchannelsof the bandwidth and a second group of subchannels of the bandwidth,determining a high-efficiency signal field to be transmitted on thecommunications channel to a first device, encoding the high-efficiencysignal field using the first group of subchannels and the second groupof subchannels, and causing to send the high-efficiency signal field tothe first device.

Implementations may include one or more of the following features. Theoperations encoding the high-efficiency signal field further may includesplitting the high-efficiency signal field into a first high-efficiencysignal part and a second high-efficiency signal part, encoding the firsthigh-efficiency signal part using the first group of subchannels, andencoding the second high-efficiency signal part using the second groupof subchannels. The method may further include operations comprisingsending a duplicate of the first high-efficiency signal part is sent onone subchannel of the first group of subchannels, and a duplicate of thesecond high-efficiency signal part is sent on one subchannel of thesecond group of subchannels. The method may further include operationsfor generating one or more first codebits based at least in part on theencoded first high-efficiency signal part, and generating one or moresecond codebits based at least in part on the encoded secondhigh-efficiency signal part. The method may further may includeoperations may include arranging the one or more first codebits into oneor more first blocks, and arranging the one or more second codebits intoone or more second blocks. A number of the one or more first blocks havemore codebits than a number of the one or more second blocks. The methodfurther may include operations for determining that a number of the oneor more second blocks have less codebits than the number of the one ormore first blocks, generating one or more duplicate blocks of at leastone of the one or more second blocks, and causing to send the one ormore duplicate blocks using the second group of subchannels. The methodfurther may include operations for causing to send one of the one ormore first blocks using the second group of subchannels, and causing tosend one of the one or more second blocks using the first group ofsubchannels.

In example embodiments of the disclosure, there may be an apparatus. Theapparatus may include means for determining a communications channelhaving a bandwidth of a frequency band. The apparatus may include meansfor determining a first group of subchannels of the bandwidth and asecond group of subchannels of the bandwidth. The apparatus may includemeans for determining a high-efficiency signal field to be transmittedon the communications channel to a first device. The apparatus mayinclude means for encoding the high-efficiency signal field using thefirst group of subchannels and the second group of subchannels. Theapparatus may include means for causing to send the high-efficiencysignal field to the first device.

Implementations may include one or more of the following features. Theoperations for encoding the high-efficiency signal field may furtherinclude means for splitting the high-efficiency signal field into afirst high-efficiency signal part and a second high-efficiency signalpart, means for encoding the first high-efficiency signal part using thefirst group of subchannels, and means for encoding the secondhigh-efficiency signal part using the second group of subchannels. Theapparatus may further include operations comprising means for sending aduplicate of the first high-efficiency signal part is sent on onesubchannel of the first group of subchannels, and a duplicate of thesecond high-efficiency signal part is sent on one subchannel of thesecond group of subchannels. the apparatus may further includeoperations comprising means for generating one or more first codebitsbased at least in part on the encoded first high-efficiency signal part,and means for generating one or more second codebits based at least inpart on the encoded second high-efficiency signal part. The apparatusmay further include operations comprising means for arranging the one ormore first codebits into one or more first blocks, and means forarranging the one or more second codebits into one or more secondblocks. A number of the one or more first blocks have more codebits thana number of the one or more second blocks. the apparatus may furtherinclude operations comprising means for determining that a number of theone or more second blocks have less codebits than the number of the oneor more first blocks, means for generating one or more duplicate blocksof at least one of the one or more second blocks, and means for causingto send the one or more duplicate blocks using the second group ofsubchannels. The apparatus may further include operations comprisingmeans for causing to send one of the one or more first blocks using thesecond group of subchannels, and means for causing to send one of theone or more second blocks using the first group of subchannels.

Certain aspects of the disclosure are described above with reference toblock and flow diagrams of systems, methods, apparatuses, and/orcomputer program products according to various implementations. It willbe understood that one or more blocks of the block diagrams and flowdiagrams, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and the flowdiagrams, respectively, may be implemented by computer-executableprogram instructions. Likewise, some blocks of the block diagrams andflow diagrams may not necessarily need to be performed in the orderpresented, or may not necessarily need to be performed at all, accordingto some implementations.

These computer-executable program instructions may be loaded onto aspecial-purpose computer or other particular machine, a processor, orother programmable data processing apparatus to produce a particularmachine, such that the instructions that execute on the computer,processor, or other programmable data processing apparatus create meansfor implementing one or more functions specified in the flow diagramblock or blocks. These computer program instructions may also be storedin a computer-readable storage media or memory that may direct acomputer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function ina particular manner, such that the instructions stored in thecomputer-readable storage media produce an article of manufactureincluding instruction means that implement one or more functionsspecified in the flow diagram block or blocks. As an example, certainimplementations may provide for a computer program product, comprising acomputer-readable storage medium having a computer-readable program codeor program instructions implemented therein, said computer-readableprogram code adapted to be executed to implement one or more functionsspecified in the flow diagram block or blocks. The computer programinstructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmabledata processing apparatus to cause a series of operational elements orsteps to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus toproduce a computer-implemented process such that the instructions thatexecute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide elementsor steps for implementing the functions specified in the flow diagramblock or blocks.

Accordingly, blocks of the block diagrams and flow diagrams supportcombinations of means for performing the specified functions,combinations of elements or steps for performing the specified functionsand program instruction means for performing the specified functions. Itwill also be understood that each block of the block diagrams and flowdiagrams, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and flowdiagrams, may be implemented by special-purpose, hardware-based computersystems that perform the specified functions, elements or steps, orcombinations of special-purpose hardware and computer instructions.

Conditional language, such as, among others, “can,” “could,” “might,” or“may,” unless specifically stated otherwise, or otherwise understoodwithin the context as used, is generally intended to convey that certainimplementations could include, while other implementations do notinclude, certain features, elements, and/or operations. Thus, suchconditional language is not generally intended to imply that features,elements, and/or operations are in any way required for one or moreimplementations or that one or more implementations necessarily includelogic for deciding, with or without user input or prompting, whetherthese features, elements, and/or operations are included or are to beperformed in any particular implementation.

Many modifications and other implementations of the disclosure set forthherein will be apparent having the benefit of the teachings presented inthe foregoing descriptions and the associated drawings. Therefore, it isto be understood that the disclosure is not to be limited to thespecific implementations disclosed and that modifications and otherimplementations are intended to be included within the scope of theappended claims. Although specific terms are employed herein, they areused in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for purposes oflimitation.

1.-21. (canceled)
 22. A device for encoding one or more high-efficiencysignal fields of a high-efficiency frame for transmission over achannel, the device comprising processing circuitry coupled to storage,the processing circuitry configured to: determine a firsthigh-efficiency signal field of the high-efficiency frame; determine asecond high-efficiency signal field of the high-efficiency frame; encodethe first high-efficiency signal field using a first encoding processassociated with a first subchannel group; encode the secondhigh-efficiency signal field using a second encoding process associatedwith a second subchannel group; and cause to send the high-efficiencyframe to a first device over the channel.
 23. The device of claim 22,wherein the first encoding process is different from the second encodingprocess.
 24. The device of claim 22, wherein to cause to send thehigh-efficiency frame comprises the processing circuitry being furtherconfigured to: determine the bandwidth to be equal to 40 MHz; cause tosend the first high-efficiency signal field over the first subchannelgroup, wherein the first subchannel group comprises a first subchannel;and cause to send the second high-efficiency signal field over thesecond subchannel group, wherein the second subchannel group comprises asecond subchannel.
 25. The device of claim 24, wherein the firstsubchannel is a 20 MHz channel, and wherein the second subchannel is a20 MHz channel.
 26. The device of claim 22, wherein to cause to send thehigh-efficiency frame comprises the processing circuitry being furtherconfigured to: determine the bandwidth to be equal to 80 MHz; determinethe first subchannel group includes a first subchannel and a thirdsubchannel of the channel; determine the second subchannel groupincludes a second subchannel and a fourth subchannel of the channel;cause to send the first high-efficiency signal field over the firstsubchannel; cause to send the second high-efficiency signal field overthe second subchannel; cause to send a duplicate of the firsthigh-efficiency signal field over the third subchannel; and cause tosend a duplicate of the second high-efficiency signal field over thefourth subchannel.
 27. The device of claim 26, wherein the firstsubchannel is adjacent to the second subchannel, and wherein the thirdsubchannel is adjacent to the fourth subchannel.
 28. The device of claim22, wherein to cause to send the high-efficiency frame comprises theprocessing circuitry being further configured to: determine thebandwidth to be equal to 160 MHz; determine the first subchannel groupincludes a first subchannel, a third subchannel, a fifth subchannel, anda seventh subchannel of the channel; determine the second subchannelgroup includes a second subchannel, a fourth subchannel, a sixthsubchannel, and an eighth subchannel of the channel; cause to send acopy of the first high-efficiency signal field over the first subchannelgroup; cause to send a copy of the second high-efficiency signal fieldover the second subchannel group.
 29. The device of claim 22, whereinthe processing circuitry is further configured to determine a number ofencoding processes is no more than three encoding processes, wherein thenumber of encoding processes includes the first encoding process and thesecond encoding process.
 30. The device of claim 22, further comprisinga transceiver configured to transmit and receive wireless signals. 31.The device of claim 28, further comprising an antenna coupled to thetransceiver.
 32. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storingcomputer-executable instructions which when executed by one or moreprocessors result in performing operations comprising: determine a firsthigh-efficiency signal field of the high-efficiency frame; determine asecond high-efficiency signal field of the high-efficiency frame; encodethe first high-efficiency signal field using a first encoding processassociated with a first subchannel group; encode the secondhigh-efficiency signal field using a second encoding process associatedwith a second subchannel group; and cause to send the high-efficiencyframe to a first device over the channel.
 33. The non-transitorycomputer-readable medium of claim 32, wherein the first encoding processis different from the second encoding process.
 34. The non-transitorycomputer-readable medium of claim 32, wherein to cause to send thehigh-efficiency frame comprises the processing circuitry being furtherconfigured to: determine the bandwidth to be equal to 40 MHz; cause tosend the first high-efficiency signal field over the first subchannelgroup, wherein the first subchannel group comprises a first subchannel;and cause to send the second high-efficiency signal field over thesecond subchannel group, wherein the second subchannel group comprises asecond subchannel.
 35. The non-transitory computer-readable medium ofclaim 34, wherein the first subchannel is a 20 MHz channel, and whereinthe second subchannel is a 20 MHz channel.
 36. The non-transitorycomputer-readable medium of claim 32, wherein to cause to send thehigh-efficiency frame comprises the processing circuitry being furtherconfigured to: determine the bandwidth to be equal to 80 MHz; determinethe first subchannel group includes a first subchannel and a thirdsubchannel of the channel; determine the second subchannel groupincludes a second subchannel and a fourth subchannel of the channel;cause to send the first high-efficiency signal field over the firstsubchannel; cause to send the second high-efficiency signal field overthe second subchannel; cause to send a duplicate of the firsthigh-efficiency signal field over the third subchannel; and cause tosend a duplicate of the second high-efficiency signal field over thefourth subchannel.
 37. The non-transitory computer-readable medium ofclaim 36, wherein the first subchannel is adjacent to the secondsubchannel, and wherein the third subchannel is adjacent to the fourthsubchannel.
 38. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 32,wherein to cause to send the high-efficiency frame comprises theprocessing circuitry being further configured to: determine thebandwidth to be equal to 160 MHz; determine the first subchannel groupincludes a first subchannel, a third subchannel, a fifth subchannel, anda seventh subchannel of the channel; determine the second subchannelgroup includes a second subchannel, a fourth subchannel, a sixthsubchannel, and an eighth subchannel of the channel; cause to send acopy of the first high-efficiency signal field over the first subchannelgroup; cause to send a copy of the second high-efficiency signal fieldover the second subchannel group.
 39. A method comprising: determine afirst high-efficiency signal field of the high-efficiency frame;determine a second high-efficiency signal field of the high-efficiencyframe; encode the first high-efficiency signal field using a firstencoding process associated with a first subchannel group; encode thesecond high-efficiency signal field using a second encoding processassociated with a second subchannel group; and cause to send thehigh-efficiency frame to a first device over the channel.
 40. The methodof claim 39, wherein to cause to send the high-efficiency framecomprises the processing circuitry being further configured to:determine the bandwidth to be equal to 40 MHz; cause to send the firsthigh-efficiency signal field over the first subchannel group, whereinthe first subchannel group comprises a first subchannel; and cause tosend the second high-efficiency signal field over the second subchannelgroup, wherein the second subchannel group comprises a secondsubchannel.
 41. The method of claim 40, wherein the first subchannel isa 20 MHz channel, and wherein the second subchannel is a 20 MHz channel.